LIVINGSTON, NJ – With heroin deaths in New Jersey up 160 percent since 2010 and more than 1,200 overdose-related deaths last year alone, U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker hosted U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Monday at Saint Barnabas Medical Center for a forum on tackling the heroin and opioid-addiction crisis plaguing the nation.

Candace Kelley speaks with Angelo Valente, Executive Director from the Partnership for a Drug-Free NJ, about Knock Out Opiate Abuse Day. Follow us on Twitter: @drugfreenj and Facebook. Recorded on: 8/3/2016.

The U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will be in New Jersey today for a forum on tackling the heroin and opioid addiction crisis plaguing New Jersey and the nation. Local doctors, treatment providers, and advocates will participate in the discussion that will also feature a demonstration on administering the overdose drug naloxone.

LIVINGSTON – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez have long been working to raise awareness and advance policies to combat the ongoing opioid/heroin epidemic that has been plaguing New Jersey and the country. In their most recent effort, the two welcomed U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy at the Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston for a Monday forum on the topic.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has toured the country with the message that more money is needed to treat opioid addictions given a treatment gap that deprives about a million Americans of the help they need. On Monday, Murthy stopped in New Jersey, this time focusing on the role clinicians can play to keep the epidemic at bay, from prescribing opioids for pain more cautiously to speaking out to legislators.

The wars fought by this generation are different from the previous ones, and have left a different kind of disabled veteran: Lots of concussive brain injuries from homemade bombs, along with lots of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from unpredictable combat conditions. The combination has produced a new crop of veterans in chronic pain, while PTSD has lowered their thresholds for pain. The result is a group of people especially vulnerable to pain pill addiction, said David Shulkin, the undersecretary of health for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

LIVINGSTON -- U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, brought his Turn the Tide tour to New Jersey today, to discuss the current opiate abuse epidemic impacting the state, and discuss action steps physicians can take to stem the tide of the epidemic. The Surgeon General is currently on a national tour designed to educate and mobilize prescribers to take immediate action to end this epidemic.

With the leadership of New Jersey’s United States Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is pleased to invite you to join us as we welcome United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to New Jersey for a Forum on Addiction and Healing on August 8, 2016. Joined by Under Secretary for Health at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, and moderated by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey, Surgeon General Murthy, Senators Menendez and Booker, will address New Jersey’s Heroin and Opioid Abuse Crisis at this forum.